Study on Ecotourism Attitude of Auto-Campers and Its Feasibility of Market Segmentation Based on ECOS Model

Increasing demand and highly varied nature of visitors have imposed great challenges on the auto-camping grounds’ planners and managers, who are tasked with the mission to provide accessible quality outdoor recreation experience and maintain the ecological integrity. Understanding tourists’ environmental attitudes and commitments toward natural resource management for social and environmental sustainability may facilitate managers’ ability to react to this challenge, thus the present study suggests a segmentation approach based on the ECOS model and aims at profiling auto-campers in South Korea to define the type of opportunities for ecotourism sustainability which auto-camping grounds may offer. A factor-clustering method identified three distinctive segments that are named "Eco-generalists", "Intermediates"and "Eco-specialists". The largest group "Eco-specialists" are indicative of the "hard" end of the ecotourism spectrum showing a low opinion of "amenities" and "socializing". The environmental attitudes of "Intermediates" are as strong as "Eco-specialists" toward "conservation" and "control", but less evident in other eco-aspects such as "socializing". The response pattern of "Eco-generalists" is strongly indicative of the "soft" end, suggesting that auto-campers in this group have a general level of eco-oriented perceptions and attitudes toward the auto-camping experience. This study may be the first attempt to incorporate the concept of ecotourism into auto-camping activities in South Korea. Results shown are believed to help auto-camping managers and market planners get aware of a distinct eco-based profile of Korean auto-campers and thus aid effective resource management.